I think I'm turning Japanese

So twice a year I travel to Japan for my network to shoot a show we call Ninja Warrior. It's basically a HUGE obstacle course (4 of them actually) that 100 people run through. Only about 5 or less make it to obstacle course #2. Anyway, it's a week of long shoot days capped off by what usually turns out to be an 18 hour Ninja Warrior day. The trip is crazy and exhausting and long, but fun nonetheless. You can walk into a small watering hole and run into a bunch of people that want to talk to you all night because you're not Japanese. For me, it's the best part of coming here. The people rock! Lots of eating and drinking. The upside is that it's sushi so it's not terribly fattening. The downside is that I'm bouncing from one hotel to the next and it looks like I'll only get one maybe two days to actually run this week. I'll need it by then for sure. It's a 12 hour flight here and then I'll be flying two more times "in country" and then take a bullet train to Tokyo all in the span of five days before the event. Not much time to myself. Knowing all this, I wasn't about to leave without hitting the pavement one last time.

I had a long run yesterday, but before I hit it, I did a lot of yard work on Saturday that strained my back and then Kristen and I built an island for the middle of our kitchen on Sunday so when I hit the strand in Long Beach afterwards my lower back was aching the entire time. I did the run on pace and it felt good, but when I woke up the next day my lower back was killing me. Not an auspicious way to start off a week of running around with a 30 pound camera on my shoulder. Anyway, I seem to be okay for now. More updates to come.